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Prayer Time (Tehran)
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Dawn: 4:07
Sunrise: 5:33
Noon: 12:05
Evening: 18:54
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Weather Guide
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WED |
THU |
Tehran: |
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High: |
36 oC |
33 oC |
Low: |
23 oC |
23 oC |
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Athens |
31 |
27 |
Ankara |
32 |
33 |
Cairo |
33 |
32 |
Copenhagen |
20 |
18 |
Frankfurt |
17 |
19 |
Karachi |
30 |
31 |
Kuwait City |
47 |
46 |
London |
21 |
20 |
Madrid |
33 |
33 |
Moscow |
20 |
16 |
New Delhi |
31 |
30 |
Paris |
21 |
24 |
Riyadh |
44 |
43 |
Rome |
25 |
26 |
Vienna |
17 |
18 |
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Identification
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Published by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA)
Address:
Iran Cultural & Press Institute, #212 Khorramshahr Avenue Tehran/Iran
Executive Editor: Amin Sabooni
Editorial Dept. Tel: 88755761-2
Editorial Dept. Fax: 88761869
Advertising Dept. Tel: 88501499, 88737250
Internet Address:
www.iran-daily.com
E-mail Address:
iran-daily@iran-daily.com
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Call for Reordering Int’l Relations
Bush Challenged
To Live TV Debate
TEHRAN, Aug. 29--President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday it is high time global relations were based on democracy, justice and equal rights for all nations, challenging US President George W. Bush for a television debate.
Addressing an international press conference, the chief executive added that people worldwide are not optimistic and unsure about the future, IRNA reported.
“Presently there is prejudice on the international scene which favors certain peoples. Countries are constantly occupied through bullying tactics and various nations are being looted of their wealth and resources. Moreover, ethnic groups are being pitted against each other, corruption dominates while human values and family bonds are being disregarded. Not to mention that bribery prevails in many places. Today there are practically no traces of truthfulness, piety and nobility among mankind,“ he said.
Ahmadinejad reiterated that Iran advocates peace and will never succumb to threats and bullying.
Asked about Iran’s response to the package of incentives as offered by the 5+1 group (the five veto powers plus Germany), he said, “We think global affairs can be handled through dialogue. Following Iran’s response to the package, the ground has now been prepared for holding talks with Europe again.“
Referring to the Middle East, the president said regional countries are concerned about Israeli attacks.
“In 60 years, the Zionist regime has imposed tens of wars on the Palestinian nation and a few wars on other neighboring countries. In some societies, there are no barriers for doubting the most sacred of human values and insulting holy prophets is justified under the pretext of freedom of expression. But sadly, these societies ban questions about the reasons behind the breakout of WWII and its far-reaching implications. Today, a heavy cultural onslaught against less powerful countries lingers and nations are incessantly being humiliated in the worst possible manner,“ he said.
President Ahmadinejad offered his US counterpart George W. Bush a live television debate.
“I suggest we talk with Mr Bush, the president of the United States, in a live television debate about world issues and ways out of these standoffs. We would voice our opinions and they would too,“ he said.
The debate “should be uncensored, above all for the American public“, said Ahmadinejad, who earlier this year sent Bush a letter in the first contact in decades between leaders of the two arch-foes.
But the president said that such a debate would not necessarily mean reopening dialogue with the United States, which froze diplomatic relations with Iran after the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
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Key Bills Under Consideration
TEHRAN, Aug. 29--Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi said a draft bill on the comprehensive election system is under consideration.
He also told ISNA on Tuesday that the bill for regulating political parties’ activities will be presented to the government after it is ready.
Asked about any possible procedural changes in the Experts Assembly poll, Pour-Mohammadi said the Experts Assembly determines the regulations for vetting candidates whereas the Interior Ministry is responsible for implementing the same.
Reflecting on the nuclear issue, he extended full support for the efforts of compatriots to fulfill the nation’s rights and acquire peaceful nuclear technology.
He further said that the state is following up what all Iranians desire to achieve.
Pour-Mohammadi also referred to the European package of incentives as containing a number of ambiguities and said, “We have discussed these ambiguities and until their removal, we cannot give a concrete response. Moreover, we shall not accept any suspension (of the uranium enrichment program).“
One of the features of the comprehensive election system bill pertains to assigning Basijis (volunteer forces) with the task of compiling reports about election candidates.
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Experts Assembly Convenes
TEHRAN, Aug. 29--The 16th official session of the Experts Assembly opened at the former Majlis premises on Tuesday.
The two-day session was inaugurated by Experts Assembly Chairman Ayatollah Ali Meshkini.
Addressing the session, Ayatollah Meshkini lauded the recent victory of the Lebanese Hezbollah over the Zionist regime, stressing that the victory was a divine phenomenon, IRNA reported.
“The successful resistance of the Muslim Hezbollah forces against the invasion of the Zionist forces was a historical miracle,“ he said.
Meshkini stressed that the Experts Assembly considers the Zionist Israeli regime as a clear manifestation of state terrorism and a war criminal, declaring the assembly’s support for the brave leader of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah.
The Experts Assembly consists of 89 members who are directly elected by the nation.
Rafsanjani and Ibrahim Amini are the first and second deputy chairmen of the Experts Assembly.
The assembly’s powers and responsibilities include supervision over the leader’s performance, appointment of the leader or annulment of his leadership, whenever deemed necessary.
The assembly held its 15th session at the same venue on March 7.
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Muslim Troops Invited
For Lebanon Peacekeeping
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Aug. 29--European Union diplomats on Tuesday urged Muslim nations to make substantial contributions to the UN peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon, saying Muslim participation is key to the mission.
Bangladesh has volunteered about 1,800 troops, and Indonesia and Malaysia about 900 each. But Israel has not yet agreed to let the Asian nations send peacekeepers because their governments do not recognize the Israeli state, AP reported.
“As broad a spectrum of countries as possible should contribute, including Muslim countries,“ said Teemu Tanner, chairman of the EU’s Political and Security Committee, which handles crisis management issues.
“The offers from Malaysia and Indonesia are very important,“ the Finnish diplomat told the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a UN force; we must give it unequivocal support.“
The UN Security Council resolution that ended 34 days of fighting between Hezbollah militants based in southern Lebanon and Israeli forces calls for the deployment of 15,000 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon to work with an equal number of Lebanese troops in patrolling the border region when Israel withdraws.
European nation initially were hesitant to commit troops but agreed Friday to provide up to 6,900 troops, about half the force.
The delay in getting EU countries to agree to form the backbone of the UN force will have to be “seriously examined,“ said Marc Otte, the EU’s special representative for the Middle East peace process.
The European Commission said the main humanitarian challenge now in Lebanon is to provide enough clean water for the many still displaced from damaged homes and to ensure the clearance of unexploded mines.
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France Keen on Nuclear Dialogue
PARIS, Aug. 29--Two days before a UN deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, France offered on Tuesday to renew talks with Tehran to end the standoff while still insisting it freeze sensitive nuclear work.
“The Iranian authorities say they are open to dialogue and ready to resume discussions,“ Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told a meeting of French ambassadors in Paris, AFP reported.
“Without abandoning the demand to suspend sensitive activities, France is also ready to renew dialogue. But it must be a clear, concrete and responsible dialogue,“ he said.
Douste-Blazy said he wanted the talks to take place ’quickly’ but would not be pinned down on a timeframe, while a French diplomat said the offer was for dialogue, not the resumption of full-blown negotiations Tehran is seeking.
In Brussels, a diplomat said that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was trying to set up a meeting with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, somewhere in Europe and hopefully “before the end of the month“.
He said the meeting would also involve ’diplomats’ from the so-called EU-3 powers of Britain, France and Germany, which have been leading negotiations with Tehran also involving the United States, Russia and China.
The UN Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities--which Tehran says is part of a civilian nuclear program--or face the threat of sanctions.
An impasse is looming as Iran insists that it has no intention of abandoning such work--though it says it is ready to hold “serious talks“.
A package of incentives backed by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council--the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China--plus Germany depends on Tehran first agreeing to suspend enrichment.
The six powers remain divided over what action to take if Iran fails to comply.
China and Russia, which have major economic interests in Iran, are hostile to the idea of sanctions and want a return to full negotiations.
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Israeli Abuse of Palestinians Increasing
BEIT-UL-MOQADDAS, Aug. 29--An Israeli human rights group has accused the country’s military of a surge in abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank over the past two months, when media attention was turned to conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon.
B’Tselem, an independent body that monitors Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, said it had gathered evidence of a “substantial increase“ in the beating, abuse and humiliation of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers and border police, Reuters reported.
While B’Tselem said it believed restrictions on the movement of Palestinians in the West Bank lay at the root of the violence, the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon appeared to have opened the way to an increase in abuses “in the shadow of war“.
“Reports on the extensive casualties that Hezbollah caused among Israeli civilians and soldiers aggravated the rage and frustration of security forces, which they expressed in increased aggression towards Palestinians,“ B’Tselem said.
“With the public’s attention almost completely focused on events in Lebanon, and to a lesser extent in Gaza, the security forces in the West Bank may have thought that they would not be held accountable for violent and abusive treatment.“
As an example, B’Tselem gave the case of Mater Khamaiseh, a vegetable dealer from Jenin who was stopped by Israeli troops after bypassing a checkpoint outside the town on August 1.
It said Khamaiseh was stopped by four soldiers who took him from his truck and led him to a nearby olive grove, where one of the soldiers “fired a long volley of bullets over his head“.
“Then the soldiers beat him all over his body, punching him and hitting him with their rifle butts, and kicking him,“ B’Tselem said in its report, available at www.btselem.org.
“One of the soldiers shot him in the hand and a single shot to his stomach. Apparently the bullets were blanks.“
Israeli soldiers and border police are frequently accused of minor abuses of Palestinians, including delaying people at checkpoints for hours or forcibly searching suspects.
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Will Annan
Stand Up?
By Mohammad Reza Erfanian
Secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan is touring the region and on Monday discussed with Lebanese officials ways to return peace to the volatile region after Israel devastated large parts of the defenseless country in a month-long murderous bombing campaign. He also discussed the issue of dispatching UN peacekeepers to the south of Lebanon and shore up a ceasefire for which the occupying power has no respect.
Although Annan’s tour could positively affect the fragile ceasefire mandated by the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, it should be asked why the UN boss showed up in war-battered Lebanon so late. Wisdom demands he should have been in Beirut to talk about a truce when for 33 days Israel was systemically attacking the country with some of the most advanced American weapons and killing defenseless Lebanese men, women and children.
Deploying international peacekeeping forces in the Lebanon-Israel border regions can definitely curb the dangerous hostilities and allow reason to prevail by curbing Israeli lawlessness. However, much more was expected from the world body and the Security Council.
Under the UN charter, the Security Council’s primary function is “to maintain international peace and security.“ So, demanding an immediate UNSC resolution to stop Israeli war crimes and prevent the slaughter of innocent Lebanese civilians was not asking for too much. But then when has the council or its five veto-wielding powers come to the help of the poor and powerless killed in large numbers by invading foreign armies?
This time too the council let an occupying army kill and destroy with impunity for more than a month before taking any action. Worse still, under the destructive influence of the US and some European states it inhibited an initiative for the establishment of a ceasefire.
In essence it also tacitly supported the recent Zionist atrocities. This approach by the powerful council convinced many international observers and experts to once again ponder about its true mission.
Analysts in no small number have been quoted as saying that the time has come to rename this important and influential institution as ’the US Security Council’!
Annan in his capacity as the world’s top diplomat has a duty to assume responsibility towards the inability or unwillingness of the UN to deal effectively with crises of such magnitude.
If the UN chief had had taken the trouble to be in Beirut during the peak of the Israeli aggressions, he could at least have helped reduce the anxieties and agonies of the innocent people of Lebanon amid the shocking UN procrastination and the UNSC green light for the Zionist regime.
Two weeks have passed since the ceasefire came into effect in Lebanon. But, Israel still has Lebanon under siege from the air and sea, continues to occupy parts of southern Lebanon, and is making a mockery of Resolution 1701 by respecting it in the breach.
Hours into the ceasefire on August 14, Zionist troops martyred a Lebanese freedom fighter and in less than a week sent its military into eastern Lebanon. Later Israeli fighter planes violated the Lebanese airspace in a further show of military muscle.
It is up to Annan to use his good office to set the record straight in the Middle East that is being made more unsafe and unstable by Israel and its sponsors who are long into the habit of spreading fear and in fact have turned into the enemies of peace in the true sense of the word.
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